Dracula Hearts of Fire Book two of Dracula Hearts
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

JENNY FOUND HERSELF ALONE in the forest in front of the cottage. A Hermit Thrush was singing its haunting melancholy song from a nearby tree. Floyd and Edwin had escorted her to the location but then had blurred off. The place was surrounded by multicolor daisies; she had never observed such a flower because they only existed here. She knew immediately that they were a product of some incantation. But what did they do? Did they have a purpose? An early warning system of sorts, one could never tell with magic. Or perhaps it was a spell gone wrong? The flowers were throwing some pollen in the air. Jenny didn’t think it wise to breathe that stuff in, but what to do about it? She backed up several yards. Her hands tingled, and when she looked at them, they were bright white; Jenny instinctively turned them toward the daisies, and the light engulfed the flowers, killing every one of them and cleaning the air. It was a little like antibodies killing bacteria. This being a wizard was undoubtedly complicated, and not understanding oneself was annoying.

Jenny was dressed in a black T-shirt with a short skort. She had a katana sword, her throwing knives, and a backpack with some food. Edwin and Floyd had brought her to within a half mile of the cabin and said they would wait for her there, whether it was days or weeks. She hadn’t liked the sound of that. Was it going to take her weeks to locate Caius?

The Hermit Thrush landed on her shoulder and sang to her. “Well, hello. What can I do for you?” She watched as the bird circled the cottage and then flew off.

It was a little cold but not bad at all. Jenny could endure the cold or heat just like a regular vampire. The dwelling was surrounded by trees, and she immediately guessed that magic had made it; she could observe waves of light energy emerging from the roof and heading south, its colors a bit like a rainbow. The cottage looked as though it could have been hundreds of years old; she couldn’t know how old. Magic could be a tricky thing. It was made of red brick and had a slightly crooked chimney with a small shed beside it. The place was so small that it wasn’t big enough for a family to reside.

A long brick path led up to the front door, the bricks looked newer than the rest of the place, but something about that white front door was off. On further inspection, the door wasn’t a door. There was dimension to it but no cracks or seams to indicate that it could be opened, although the doorknob was real. It was a rendering of a door that was not genuine. Jenny attempted to turn the knob, but it was a prop with no function. Jenny checked the windows, and sure enough, they weren’t real either, merely painted on by magic, but they sure looked genuine from several feet away. She walked entirely around the house and wasn’t surprised to replace that there was no entrance.

“What on earth?” She knew that there had to be some way in, but how? The place had two chimneys, one on the top of the roof, the other being a short thing on the side, perhaps for a fireplace. She examined the one on the side for a hidden lever but found nothing. Jenny climbed a nearby tree and jumped from it to the roof. She thumped around, making her way to the chimney, but it was solid brick, no way to get in. No smoke had ever gone through it. How unusual was this place in the middle of the forest? Jenny jumped up and down on the roof, discovering it was as solid as a rock. A further search of the cottage roof revealed no entrance, so she jumped.

An elderly gentleman appeared from behind the cottage; he was stooped and using an Ebony and Sycamore knob on an African Iroko shaft walking stick. Jenny guarded against him; she didn’t believe he was as feeble as he pretended to be. It was best to be wary of strangers, no matter how weak they appeared. A monster that resembled a beast was at a disadvantage as it wasn’t wise to give away one’s position before the proper time.

“Hello.”

No response as he continued to move forward. And from where had he originated? Had he appeared from inside the brick cottage? Was she looking at the powerful wizard playing some game?

“Are you trying to get in there?” said Jeptha. “I’ve been trying for years, and I can tell you right now, little girl, there’s no way in. You may as well give up. Do you give up?”

Jenny had to laugh. “No, I don’t give up. What’s your name, and where did you come from?”

“Funniest thing, I was never given a name, and I guess it stuck.”

“Un-huh.” She noticed that he was no longer stooped but standing nice and straight. Jenny didn’t see any point in his antics. She was getting a kind of jokester vibe from him but wasn’t impressed. Jenny minded him, and as she poked around in there, she discovered his name. “Well, Jeptha, just what are you up to?”

His eyebrows narrowed. “Hey, little girl, no poking around in my head; I won’t allow it. That is not polite.”

“Sorry, force of habit,” said Jenny as she continued to poke around in there, now in stealth mode. Something was weird, and she wondered if he wasn’t Caius. Some sort of test? She pulled out of his mind and stared into his hazel eyes. Now he seemed to be at least ten years younger than he had been.

Jeptha went to the cottage and banged on it hard with his cane. “What do you hear?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hollow inside. There is something in there. Something good, I’ll bet.”

Jenny thought she would like to use him as a battering ram, which made her smile. “Listen, Jeptha, you know how to get in there. Are you going to tell me or not?”

“I do not know how to get in there.” He coughed and coughed and coughed.

“Are you going to live?”

“Not forever. Mind me if you like, and you’ll see I’m telling the truth. Just give me a second to prepare. Okay, now you can mind me. I’ll give you a few seconds in there.”

Jenny returned to his strange mind and found nothing but black corridors with a fire burning in the distance and several red doors. What the hell was going on in there? But each entry she opened triggered a spell and showed other corridors with numberless doors. As she got closer, it became apparent that the doors weren’t real. Each room she managed to enter had a fire pit burning with another door opposite it. The atmosphere was becoming smoky and unpleasant, and when she tried to escape his mind, she discovered that she couldn’t leave. She commenced coughing from the acrid smoke. It burned her throat. Jenny had returned to where the exit should have been, but her luminescent door had disappeared. She looked around and realized that she was at the proper location.

Jenny was frightened.

The old man started to laugh.

The girl was trapped.